Certain superconducting cables have been formed with superconducting tapes that are wound into multiple layers, in a helical fashion, around a former. In certain contexts, it may be desirable to connect and/or disconnect two of such superconducting cables together, or connect and/or disconnect a superconducting cable to a non-superconducting current lead. Embodiments of the present invention relate to connections, connector structures and methods that provide a connection between two superconducting cables, or a superconducting cable and a current lead that has a relatively low electrical resistance and that can potentially connect and disconnect many times.
Superconducting cables, such as Conductor on Round Core (CORC) cables, may contain as many as 50 or more high-temperature superconducting tapes that are wound in as many as 20, or more layers on a round former. The diameter of the former can be as small as 3 mm, or smaller. Some of the superconducting tapes, as RE-Ba2Cu3O7-δ (REBCO) (RE=rare earth: Y, Dy, Gd, etc) coated conductors contain a superconducting film that is located on one side of a metal substrate, with one or more resistive barrier layers between the superconducting film and the substrate. In such configurations, current can only enter and exit the superconducting film from one side of the tape, following a current path with low resistance.
Some superconducting cables, such as CORC cables, are constructed by winding some or all of the superconducting tapes with their superconducting layer on the inside, facing the former. In such configurations, it may be difficult to inject or extract current from the cables, because the electrical conductivity in the radial direction is reduced by the presence of the resistive buffer layers in some or all of the tapes.